meaning
Last modified on August 31, 2021

purpose => something greater
values => act consistent with my right/wrong
efficacy => make a difference
self-worth => I am good, worthy

Meaning-happiness disjuncture: high in meaning, low in happiness. E.g. revolutionaries, parents

Sources: Relationships/Community, Authenticity, Significant Goals. Working on stuff that matters, that “moves the needle.” Struggle/Adversity

perhaps adding new edges to our knowledge graph is more important than adding new nodes. That is, maybe discovering the isomorphisms/analogies between existing concepts is more powerful than learning new concepts

— Ketan Agrawal (@_ketan0) February 12, 2019

It seems like things gain more meaning when they are multiply-connected into the fabric of our reality.

Sparse causal graph of high-level, semantically meaningful variables.

Semantic variables are causal: agents, intentions, controllable objects, for example.

Changes in distribution are due to causal interventions (in the aforementioned high-level semantic space.) Provided we have the right abstractions, it would only take a few words to describe this change.

Everything that’s happening can be reported in simple language. (Interesting that this is an example of report/access consciousness.) Mapping from semantic variables <=> sentences

“generic rules” of how things work are shared across instances – need variables / functions / some form of indirection.

Stability/robustness in meaning (e.g. of laws of physics,) even with changes in distribution, vs. things that do change. E.g.: early visual layers are stable after childhood. Later things like object recognition can be adapted to very quickly.

Causal chains to explain things are short. (Interesting: connection to dissonance reduction: we like simple explanations of the world around us (possibly because it helps us streamline our cognition.))

We need some ways of maintaining continuity in our life, keeping re-upping on the same, powerful threads. Life shouldn’t dissolve into a sea of fragmented, 30-second Youtube clips…rather, we should keep coming back to the same threads, seeing how they evolve over time.

To be transformed by a book, readers must do more than absorb information: they must bathe in the book’s ideas, relate those ideas to experiences in their lives over weeks and months, try on the book’s mental models like a new hat.

I feel like…it takes time to integrate insights. To stitch them into our webs of meaning.

This can mean:

• Doing intellectual work on a more daily basis, rather than in sporadic bursts, in order to be more immersed in that headspace. I feel like the people who are the best at what they do are absolutely immersed in the headspace – they’re the kind of people whose minds wander to think about those problems while they’re in the shower.
  
• Actively memorizing things through spaced repetition .
  
• Establishing a daily meditation practice, where you learn new insights over time.
  
• “Slow-reading” a book, allowing its insights to unfurl over the backdrop of your life in motion. (Alternatively, re-reading a book at different points in your life.)
  

I think another crucial source of continuity in life is being part of a good community. Essentially, I’d want to find community/communities that take “that one engrossing conversation that kept you up till 3am,” and serialize it. Be living and breahting in an ideaspace that is enriching.